GMW: Eli Lilly extends monopoly for GE drug

[Guest guest]

GMW: Eli Lilly extends monopoly for GE drug

" GM WATCH " <info

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 16:59:57 +0100

 

 

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

------

1.Lifeline to health yanked away

2.Eli Lilly has some diabetics scrambling

 

RELEVANT QUOTE

 

" Since its introduction 20 years ago this summer, genetically

engineered insulin has been linked not only to an increasing number of

unexplained deaths but to a range of side-effects that some patients

say have

destroyed their lives. These range from unexpected hypos to massive

weight gain, violent mood swings, memory loss, joint pains, mental

confusion

and crippling exhaustion. "

THE GM INJECTION

Daily Mail, August 29, 2002

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5225

------

1.Lifeline to health kicked away

 

Comment by Dr Brent Hoadley

 

The following article, which appeared in the Indianapolis Star on

08/27/05, indicates the " callousness " of Eli Lilly . . . but does not

address the fact of how the insulin-using population has been

manipulated to

ensure that Lilly has a monopolistic stranglehold on the market.

 

Since the mid-1980s, Lilly has promoted its cheaply-produced [and

genetically engineered] rDNA insulin, warning doctors and patients of the

impending withdrawal of the old standard animal insulins. AND, they have

systematically withdrawn one animal insulin after another from the

market. New diabetics, new doctors and new pharmacists do not even KNOW

about animal insulin, and its safety and efficacy (compared to the new

stuff.) They have been " brainwashed " to believe that animal insulins are

dirty.

 

Without a true basis for comparison, and with a manufacturer who

essentially controls the marketplace, they can now--after 20

years--say that

their rDNA insulin is " the most popular " and/or " the most used. " With

powerful Bush-family backing, they have stayed below the radar of

consumer advocates as well as the Justice Department's anti-trust

overseers.

The number of diabetics who have been harmed by the rDNA insulin is

unknowable, but the entire chronicle is appalling.

 

That diabetics have over the course of 20 years been forced to " choose "

between a couple of inferior products to manage their disease should

have the media's watchful eyes fully opened. Alas, no one seems to

recognize that when a marketing/business plan serves to enslave one

needful

group

of patients . . . it will work for others, and eventually, it will work

for the masses. You can see that a small news article, presented in an

informative but non-confrontational manner, does little to arouse a

sleepy public to the dangers being permitted by our governmental watchdog

agencies. Pleas to the FDA are answered by a " canned " response that

they cannot force a manufacturer to produce (or to continue to produce) a

product, regardless of its medical necessity.

 

The government may not be able to " force " such an action . . but by

requiring a drug to be as safe and efficacious as an already-approved

drug

.. . . by requiring batch testing of insulin production . . . by

correctly placing rDNA insulin under bio-tech regulations instead of

the more

prosaic " medicine " category, and by CAREFULLY scrutinizing the studies

supporting approval request, they could certainly serve their purpose

of protecting the public. Until someone arouses a sleeping public, Lilly

and its ilk continue to profit and grow fat while diabetics continue to

become statistics in some unread governmental report.

 

(Isn't is newsworthy that another Lilly product—Zyprexa — actually

causes those users to become diabetic. Talk about market manipulation! —

Lilly is actually ADDING to its customer base. Somehow, this seems to be

the ULTIMATE in market manipulation!)

 

Brent Hoadley, Ph.D.

Bring Back Beef Insulin--Diabetics DESERVE a Choice

------

2.Eli Lilly has some diabetics scrambling

By Jeff Swiatek

Indy Star, 27 August 2005

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050827/BUSINESS/508270362

 

Brent Hoadley counts himself among a small number of diabetics upset

that Eli Lilly and Co. has yanked away one of their lifelines to good

health, the last animal-sourced insulin sold in the United States.

 

A retired horticulture professor in Lamont, Fla., Hoadley found out

last month that Lilly will stop selling Iletin pork insulin when existing

supplies run out later this year.

 

Hoadley criticized the Indianapolis drug maker this week for not trying

to find a way to keep producing small batches of pork insulin for its

2,000 U.S. and 400 Canadian customers. The two countries are the last

markets where Lilly sells the once widely used Iletin brand.

 

" They could have had production once a year of animal insulin and kept

everyone happy. (But) they don't want (to sell) the lower-priced animal

(insulin), " Hoadley said. " They want to move to patented products, " he

said, which carry higher prices and have far more users.

 

Lilly officials said they know of no firm trying to offer a replacement

animal-derived insulin in the U.S. market. But in Canada, Lilly has

pledged to help Indian drug maker Wockhardt Ltd. offer a replacement pork

insulin.

 

No technology

 

Lilly's help is limited to " guidance and advice " about winning

government product marketing approval, company spokeswoman Marni

Lemons said,

and doesn't include sharing any manufacturing technology.

 

Hoadley said that once he uses his small stockpile of Iletin he

probably will import pork insulin from Britain, using a special

federal drug

import permit for which he has yet to apply. A more drastic option, he

said, is to move to Australia, where pork insulin still is sold.

 

The dwindling numbers of Iletin users prompted Lilly's decision to end

sales, Lemons said. Actual human users are even fewer than 2,400, she

said, since a significant amount is bought for diabetic dogs or cats.

 

The disappearance of animal insulins made from ground-up pancreas

glands from slaughtered livestock completes the takeover of the North

American market by biosynthetic insulins that were introduced in the

mid-1980s. The new insulins are made using gene-cloning technology.

Lilly's two

major brands are Humulin and Humalog.

 

Dr. John A. Hunt, a semi-retired diabetes doctor in Vancouver, said he

regrets that the biosynthetics have pushed animal insulins off the

market because he has found some patients can control their blood-sugar

levels better using insulin from pigs or cattle.

 

Hunt said he treats about 25 patients with animal insulin and they now

will have to find another source for it.

 

" I've got a lot of really unhappy people around here, " he said.

 

Wockhardt in 2003 bought CP Pharmaceuticals, a manufacturer of pork and

beef insulin in Great Britain, where animal-derived insulin remains

more widely used than in the United States and Canada.

 

Call Star reporter Jeff Swiatek at (317) 444-6483.

 

 

 

 

--------------------------